TTP denies holding crashed helicopter crew hostage
Monday, August 8th, 2016 2:43:59 by fatimaarshad
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group has recently released a statement, denying holding the crashed helicopter crew hostage. Just a few days ago, a Punjab Government helicopter crashed in Afghanistan’s Logar province, and since then, there has been no sign of the crew.
According to reports, there were six people on-board the helicopter-five Pakistani officials and one Russian navigator. The helicopter was on its way to Russia for an overhaul via Uzbekistan, when due to some reason, it crashed in Afghanistan.
There are reports that as the helicopter crashed on the ground, Taliban men took the crew as hostage and later set the chopper on fire. However, there are some reports which claim that the helicopter had caught fire on its way down to the ground.
Soon after the chopper went down, some of the local and international media channels had reported that a TTP commander by the name of Adam Khan Kochai had captured the crew members and was still holding them hostage.
However, TTP’s spokesman Mohammad Khorasani corrected this statement and released the following one on Sunday;
“The news is completely baseless and incorrect that the crew members are held by the TTP Commander Adam Khan Kochai. We have contacted Kochai, who is an important TTP commander, and he has denied the reports.”
In the same way, some other news channels had reported that TTP’s Hakimullah group is holding the crew hostage. However, this report was denied as well and the TTP clarified that it does not have any group by this name.
Soon after the crew went missing, Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif contacted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to assist Pakistan in finding the crew members. Ghani assured Sharif that all efforts will be made to rescue them.
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=53796
Posted by fatimaarshad
on Aug 8 2016. Filed under Pakistan.
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